Title: The Vigilante’s Bride.
Author: Yvonne Harris.
Genre: Christian, Fiction, Western, Romance, Drama, Action/Adventure.
Plot: Eighteen year old Emily McCarthy reluctantly agrees to leave the only home she’s ever known and answer a mail order bride notice, traveling all the way from Chicago to Montana on a train in December of 1884. On the first day of her arrival, while she is on her way to meet her intended husband, the stagecoach she is riding in gets held up and Emily McCarthy is kidnapped by Luke Sullivan. From the moment he swoops her off her feet that dark Christmas Eve night, Emily finds herself on an adventure she never expected. Taken by her mysterious captor to New Hope, an orphanage where Sullivan grew up, Emily befriends Molly who runs the place, and engages in frequent sparring matches with Sullivan. She finally settles in however and takes up teaching the twenty-four lively orphans and two Crow Indian boys, the sons of chief Black Otter.
Sullivan, for his part, never intended that night to kidnap Emily. All he wanted to do was take back the money Bart Axel, Emily’s intended husband, stole from his father years ago. When he learned who Emily was heading off to marry, he knew he had to talk some sense into the naïve girl before she got herself into trouble. What Sullivan and the locals all know but the folks in Chicago don’t is that Axel is a villain. A former vigilante and trail boss, Sullivan busies himself with New Hope’s dwindling herd while forcing himself not to ride over and shoot Axel himself when things start going wrong; beginning with a severe beating that nearly ends the twenty-six-year-old’s life.
On top of the usual hardships of winter, the continual dwindling of the herd and brewing trouble with Axel, Sullivan and Emily find themselves falling in love. Their troubles, however, aren’t over yet.
Likes/Dislikes: I have to be honest with you: I loved this book!! I’ve wanted to read it for months now and you can just imagine how excited I was when my Dad brought it home from the post office. Emily and Sullivan’s sparring with each other was hilarious; his sense of humor is very good and she reminds me a little of myself. Molly, Black Otter, Stuart and the other primary supporting characters are all well drawn and provided plenty of laughs as they teased Sullivan and Emily or worked together to outwit the bad guy. And this western has everything in it that a lover of classic westerns could want except for the final showdown between the hero and the villain {Axel is a really clever villain too}; I really wanted a final showdown! However, I don’t suppose Sullivan would have been able to participate with a wounded arm. There is some violence, obviously, but it’s not graphic and there are also only a few kisses, nothing graphic there either.
Rating: PG-15 and up for violence and reading level. Highly recommended!
Date Report Written: June 11, 2011.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed in the above review are my own.
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